Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?!

Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 05/27/0911:47 PM

I know this might be a little off for some people. I know lots of people that do not believe in such things. But I have a piano that is haunted. I have had it for almost 10 years now, and has moved 2 places since I have had it. So I know its not the house thats haunted.

It is a W. G. Eavestaff&Sons victorian small upright. I am guess it was made 1860s to 1900ish for guesstamate it. Has candal arms on the front and original ivory keyboard, with a decorated carved walnut case. It was restored before i bought it with new strings felts pins pin block. I love playing and teaching with it. But there is a uncertain spookyness the piano holds to it.

I bought it from a antique store that was going out of business. They seemed glad to be selling it since the business went bust. Well I had it for about a month in my music room when I started noticing things about it. I always leave the fall board closed. Then lately when I came into the room, it would be open. I live alone, and no one ever goes in there without me there... After a few times within a week of it doing this by itself...I decided to leave it open...!!!

A few months later, I was re painting my hallway downstairs with a friend of mine. I left to go up stairs to get something when she heard it. It sounded like piano music, but no tv or radios where on. When I came down the steps she was coming up frantic. She told me to stop and listen...but I heard nothing.When she told me what happened I didnt really know what to think... I took her into the music room, after I played music on the first 2 pianos and went to the upright...I thought she was going to cry, she said thats the sound of piano she heard.Mind you...I never told anyone about it being haunted or my encounter with it before. She didnt come to my house for a while after that.Since then a few times coming downstairs...I would think I would hear muffled music, like Schubert, but tried to ignore it. I had a paranormalist I heard about that was suppose to be really good at this sort of thing, and had her come to my house to see if it was my house. When I showed her the music room, she was instantly drawn to the piano, having not told her anything specific.She said that there was a young boy attached to it, she said that he died during world war 1. Once I finally told her my long story with my history of it, she was certain this was the cause. Also saying my old house had something else which is another story. But that is my story of my haunted piano.

SO has anyone else ever had any encounters with this I will post a pic of my old piano soon if anyone would like to see it?

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 06/01/0906:24 PM

I believe it. I grew up in a haunted house and lived in another one for a few years after my husband and I got married. I wouldn't be running anywhere frantic if my friend's piano played itself, I would have just sat there and listened. After all, "ghosts were people too" LOL.

My piano isn't haunted, but I got a U2 LP at the flea market last year and my husband thinks there is some residual psychic energy attatched to it from a former owner.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 06/01/0906:39 PM

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 06/01/0909:19 PM

I lived with a ghost in an old sea captains house in Swampscott, MA years ago.He/she never played my piano, but did scare the heck out of my poor dog, and used to throw incense burners across the room.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 08/20/1007:57 PM

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 08/21/1011:48 PM

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 09/21/1101:44 PM

Originally Posted By: Piano World

I lived with a ghost in an old sea captains house in Swampscott, MA years ago.He/she never played my piano, but did scare the heck out of my poor dog, and used to throw incense burners across the room.

I didn't expect to find a thread like this on PW, but this makes me feel maybe not so "crazy".

To explain, about two years ago I and my husband moved into a 100 year old home that had been owned by 12 different families over the years. Not long after moving in we started an extensive renovation. As walls were torn down and repairs made my husband and I independently noticed almost daily strange occurrences. Doors would open and close while we watched from a distance, lights would randomly turn on/off and our television remotes were constantly being moved to unexpected places. The oddest thing was that any small "new technology" item was prone to random excursions through the house.

My husband noticed the figure of an older woman on the stairway one day and over the next few months we were able to correlate her to "poltergeist" like activity. She continued and became quite unruly at times, her wanderings ending around the same time as completion of one of main bedrooms and a clearing of 50 years of yard overgrowth and commercially placed pavement.

Now that she's gone we figure she was upset at her bedroom being used as a construction area and pleased that the parking lot out front was a yard again. Hopefully she stays in the garden.

But she isn't the reason I'm writing. There is another spirit here. This one we call "the Tobacco guy". His name came about when we compared instances of a distinct odor of tobacco paired with slow footsteps pacing through the house.

"Tobacco guy" is still here and hangs out most of the time with my husband when he's watching golf. He doesn't bother me much.

Here's the "I must be completely out of my mind" part. (Agh, why am I even writing about this...)

Once a month or so as I'm practicing on my DP or keyboard I will sense he's looking over my shoulder. This isn't in a creepy haunted way but more like someone listening and providing a critique. When he does "appear" it will only be for a few minutes and it's always to "show me" something. One day I found myself playing arpeggios when I didn't even know what one was. Another time it was cadences I hadn't read about yet. Anyway, it had always been unobtrusive up until his last visit.

A couple of weeks ago I was practicing scales with my hands in my standard use "hands relaxed as they are at side" position. Practice was going well but not great.

Suddenly I felt something take my hands and reshape them into a much higher "holding a baseball" shape and then I/he was playing scales a half dozen times at a much faster tempo with a perfect accuracy I had never before come close to. And then he was gone. I sat there at the keyboard in a bit of shock. I honestly didn't know whether to say "thank you for showing me how to do that" to the air or to run screaming from the room because I think an otherworldly spirit touched me.

Finally I chose the first and think I'm going to continue with a "thank you" if it happens again.

I don't think I'm insane...but the logical side of my brain is both thrilled (Hey. A free lesson!) and upset with this.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 09/22/1106:55 PM

We don't usually dig up old posts like this, but this one is offbeat enough to be interesting when it gets new details.

People who have experienced these things understand perfectly, people who haven't tend to think we're making it up, imagining it, or a little off center.

Personally I could use a built in teacher, even if I couldn't see him/her:-)

I see that you live in Georgia, in a 100+ year old house.Enough said.

I'd go with the thank you if it happens again (and keep a video camera handy in case you can catch something on film).

As I mentioned in my post, I've never seen anything, only felt it heard it and seen things get thrown. It would be exciting to actually see something.Of course I say that about aliens too, which probably convinces most people I'm not all there.Still, if you watch the History Channel some of the arguments and theories are plausible (granted some are way out there too).

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 09/22/1108:39 PM

We don't usually dig up old posts like this, but this one is offbeat enough to be interesting when it gets new details.

People who have experienced these things understand perfectly, people who haven't tend to think we're making it up, imagining it, or a little off center.

I had a friend once call me to apologize for every time they ever teased me (going all the way back to high school) about believing my parents' house was haunted after they had their first "paranormal experience" and needed someone to talk to about it.

I think threads like this one are the reason automatically locking old threads to keep them from resurfacing, like people have suggested at one time or another, would be a bad idea. This is one that could grow slowly over time despite its limited appeal. In the two tears since this thread started I have had something odd, possibly paranormal, happen at the piano but I'm not so sure it really qualifies as a "ghost story". It was more of an altered state type of thing but it was the piano's state, not mine, that was altered which is what made it weird.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 09/26/1101:22 PM

We don't usually dig up old posts like this, but this one is offbeat enough to be interesting when it gets new details.

People who have experienced these things understand perfectly, people who haven't tend to think we're making it up, imagining it, or a little off center.

Personally I could use a built in teacher, even if I couldn't see him/her:-)

I see that you live in Georgia, in a 100+ year old house.Enough said.

I'd go with the thank you if it happens again (and keep a video camera handy in case you can catch something on film).

As I mentioned in my post, I've never seen anything, only felt it heard it and seen things get thrown. It would be exciting to actually see something.Of course I say that about aliens too, which probably convinces most people I'm not all there.Still, if you watch the History Channel some of the arguments and theories are plausible (granted some are way out there too).

But I'm getting off track here. Good luck with your "piano lessons".

Thank you so much for understanding. I'm so relieved to know I'm not the only "generally believed sane" person who's noticed activity where there should be none.

Yes, Georgia has been interesting thus far. The small town I've chosen had been part of my pathways for 20+ years. I've always noticed this area exuded a distinct Sleepy Hollow vibe much like certain North-East Pre-Revolutionary towns of my youth. I never realized how "Gothic" it could actually get here.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 09/26/1101:32 PM

We don't usually dig up old posts like this, but this one is offbeat enough to be interesting when it gets new details.

People who have experienced these things understand perfectly, people who haven't tend to think we're making it up, imagining it, or a little off center.

I had a friend once call me to apologize for every time they ever teased me (going all the way back to high school) about believing my parents' house was haunted after they had their first "paranormal experience" and needed someone to talk to about it.

I think threads like this one are the reason automatically locking old threads to keep them from resurfacing, like people have suggested at one time or another, would be a bad idea. This is one that could grow slowly over time despite its limited appeal. In the two tears since this thread started I have had something odd, possibly paranormal, happen at the piano but I'm not so sure it really qualifies as a "ghost story". It was more of an altered state type of thing but it was the piano's state, not mine, that was altered which is what made it weird.

Could I ask what your experience was?

I'm still at the I-don't-know-how-categorize-this state of mind about what has been happening in my own home. I'd like to say it was waking dreams or hallucinations, but the odds of my husband independently noticing almost identical apparitions seems slim.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 09/28/1108:59 PM

The thing with my piano has happened twice so far, with a good bit of time between the two experiences. My piano is very old and in need of action work, some of which I am doing myself bit by bit. I was playing one evening when the action started feeling very different. The effort needed for each key just seemed so even compared to usual and the repetition was nothing like I'm used to. It was as if I was getting a taste of what the piano probably was like when it was new or possibly how it could be if the action had a complete refurbishment. When I became aware of how different the action felt I stopped playing and started picking out individual keys to try to figure out what was going on and it quickly stopped. All was back to normal. It was at least a month or two later the second time it happened. When I became aware of it this time instead of questioning it I decided I was going to play through and just enjoy it. I think I got about an hour before it started fading and by then it was time to stop anyway. I'm not sure myself exactly how to label the experience. I considered the possibility that it could have been the altered mental state of "flow" that people often talk about except that my abilities didn't change any. I've experienced flow and hyper-focus before and this wasn't the same. I was playing just as well or as poorly as usual, it was just the way the piano felt under my fingers that changed. I enjoyed the experience, there wasn't anything upsetting about it to me. Of course I wasn't getting touched! Not that I haven't before...

I have seen, felt, heard, sensed, been touched by, etc. over the years and just gotten used to it.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 10/15/1108:15 AM

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 11/24/1108:42 PM

I live in the original Roger Benton homestead, built in 1805 and rebuilt after a fire in 1820. The seventeen-room post colonial house stood on 100 acres. All but 1 1/4 acres are now the local cemetary. Roger Benton was the first travelling Methodist minister in this county in upstate New York. His granddaughter, born in this same house, married Francis Bellamy, author of our Pledge of Allegiance, said daily in schools. In the almost thirty years I have lived here a lot of people have said they thought the house was haunted. Kids won't even come here at Halloween. Three of my four daughter are convinced the house is haunted. I have never seen or heard anything. I guess I am not very open to experiences of this kind? Anyway, I love reading other people's experiences in this topic. Very interesting. I really wish a ghost or spirit was around to help me with arpeggios, scales, etc. I need all the help I can get.

Re: Haunted Pianos?!?!?!?! - 02/23/1210:15 AM

i got a piano almost more than 100+ years old it was totally dead when i got that but i am not able to play the piano bit until i get that piano but i dont know why with it alone i sometimes play some melodies even i cant really belive that i played them this maby looks silly but i cant express that feeling